Recently, in the field of endoscope, a capsule endoscope equipped with an imaging function and a radio communication function has appeared. This capsule endoscope has a configuration of moving in the internal organs (body cavity) such as esophagus, stomach, and small intestine with peristalsis during an observation period after it is swallowed from a mouth of an examinee as a subject of observation (examination) until it is naturally discharged from a living body (human body) of the examinee, and sequentially taking pictures at a predetermined imaging rate by using the imaging function.
During this observation period while the endoscope is moving in the internal organs, image data acquired in the body cavity by the capsule endoscope is sequentially transmitted to the outside of the examinee by the radio communication function such as radio communications, and stored in a memory provided in an external receiving device. If the examinee carries the receiving device having the radio communication function and the memory function, the examinee swallows the capsule endoscope and then can freely move without any inconvenience even during the observation period until the endoscope is discharged. After the observation, a doctor or a nurse can perform diagnosis by displaying images of the body cavity on a display unit, such as a display, based on the image data stored in the memory in the receiving device (see Patent Document 1).
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-19111